


The Beast of Heorot

by WildandWhirling



Category: Beowulf (Poem)
Genre: An Attempt Was Made At Early Medieval English, Cats, Fluff, Gen, Gen or Pre-Slash, Triple Drabble, Tsundere Unferth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-14
Updated: 2020-07-14
Packaged: 2021-03-04 22:53:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25254151
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WildandWhirling/pseuds/WildandWhirling
Summary: Beowulf brings a gift to Unferth to compensate him for the loss of Hrunting.
Relationships: Beowulf & Unferth (Beowulf), Beowulf/Unferth (Beowulf)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 12
Collections: Multifandom Drabble 2020





	The Beast of Heorot

**Author's Note:**

  * For [cereus](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cereus/gifts).



> VERY sorry for the late fill here; suffice it to say, my non-fandom life happened to come with a great deal of stress, and the next thing I knew, the posting deadline had come and gone and I was panicking. I will say that the stress DID give me the idea for this, though, so it wasn't all bad.

“What brings Ecgtheow’s son to this hall?” Unferth relaxed alone in the Great Hall, a dry smile on his face as he propped his legs against the bench where a warrior sat hours ago. 

The kinsman of ring-giving Hygelac responded, “I had thought, son of Ecglaf, to repay your kindness.” 

Unferth stiffened at the memory of his well-worn blade, shattered beyond recognition. “No need.” Proud was the son of Ecglaf, and not keen to find himself indebted to anyone, least of all a foreigner. 

“A kindness you paid me, a kindness I return,” Beowulf insisted.

“Not necessary; what I did was no kindness.” 

“Really?” Beowulf’s footsteps were steady and distinct against the stone floor. The proximity forced Unferth to look upwards at him.

“No. It was-If you fell in combat, it might be another twelve years of fear in Heorot. Anyway-“ he added, quickly, lest the other man believe that he’d any great liking for him, “You brought the she-beast upon us, so it was fitting for you to dispatch her. And well you did.” He paused. “What is it, anyway? Even were it to have a golden pommel, it would be a poor match for Hrunting in my eyes.”

“Nothing so grand, but I hope it might aid Heorot far in the future.” From his side, Beowulf produced a mewling kitten, limbs flailing.

Against his will, Unferth found himself reaching a finger out to touch its soft, white stomach, where striped fur parted. “Has it a name?”

“You accept?”  
  
The thing was pathetic, small.

Weak.

However…

“A _name_.”  
  
“Hraefnhild.”

“Hraefnhild…” he took the shivering ball of fur, the creature with a name larger than it taking up his entire palm. “She will need training, to see Heorot protected.”

Beowulf smiled, infuriatingly, clapping his shoulder. “I trust no one else.”

**Author's Note:**

> It is very important to know that Hraefnhild, the Protectoress of Heorot, ended up growing very useless and very fat on the fish that her not-doting-at-all father gave her, and routinely sat by his side during feasts, spending more time side-eyeing the other warriors than chasing mice. The only other hero that she liked was her Uncle Beowulf, though she never understood the strange mouth thing that they liked to do before shooing her out of the room. 
> 
> She was, as they might say, a Ledge™. 
> 
> For this fic, I primarily consulted Poole's "The Contextual Cat: Human–Animal Relations and Social Meaning in Anglo-Saxon England." And then used next to none of it, because I was primarily consulting it to make sure I wasn't TOTALLY off base about cats being kept at all. And then promptly learned that some cats in Early Medieval England were in fact kept for their fur, which....as someone more used to Pangur Bán....kind of horrified me. LUCKILY ENOUGH, Hraefnhild is going to be very spoiled. (Unferth might threaten to make her into a pair of gloves on occasion, but who would sleep on his head then?)


End file.
